News & Blogs
Mike Brown non-committal on Knicks’ starting lineup ahead of Game 4 vs. Hawks – SNY
Knicks’ Mike Brown Makes Surprising Comment Amid NBA Playoffs Series Deficit vs. Hawks – BleacherReport
The Knicks made progress in some areas in Game 2, but crippling problems remain – Posting & Toasting
Knicks Bulletin: ‘There’s no room to feel sorry for ourselves’ – Posting & Toasting
The Knicks have the Hawks right where they want them. Right? – The New York Times
Mike Brown says Knicks’ starting lineup change will be ‘a game-time decision’ – The New York Times
The Run.down Knicks vs Hawks R1G4 Postgame Show – The Strickland
KAT Triple Double! Knicks Dominate Hawks to Tie Series 2-2 – Knick of Time
Knicks DESTROY The Hawks In Game 4 To Even The Series | CP The Fanchise Reacts – Knicks Fan TV
Knicks at Hawks (Game 4) – Recap & Reaction | POSTGAME SHOW | Knicks Film School – Knicks Film School
YT News
59 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2026.04.26)”
Oof, saw the DDV news. He was playing great.
Missed the game because I was out watching Rhett Miller play a solo acoustic show at a church in Montclair, NJ, which was fantastic. (Among other things, on stage he does this half-windmill when he strums the guitar that makes it look like his arm is triple jointed.)
Watched highlights and read commentary after. Glad to see that KAT was that aggressive, and that everyone else was willing to feed him. And that Brown finally adjusted to circumstances the way he did in the regular season, by drastically reducing Mikal’s minutes, taking the ineffective Shamet out of the rotation for now, and giving Alvarado another shot.
That said, if we can somehow continue to get our acts together and move on to the second round, we’re going to need Mikal to defend Brown and/or Tatum. We’ll see if this semi-dungeoning lowers his effort level even further, or if it inspires him, like KAT, to kick ass and prove all the haters wrong.
One of the biggest Knicks what ifs of all time will be what if they never got Mikal.
https://x.com/TheKateRooney/status/2048204910907248881?s=20
He’s shooting 385 from downtown, otherwise we’d be firmly into the “We need to talk about Jalen” stage of things.
1. Much better effort on both sides by everyone.
2. Good adjustment by Brown to run the offense through KAT more often. That was great game by KAT.
3. Brunson was better, but imo he’s still forcing things too often. How hard is it to acknowledge that Atlanta is a tough matchup for you and you don’t have to prove you are the best guard on the court at all times and that no one can guard you? When you have a good matchup or get a good look off the ball take it, but don’t drive into double teams or long arms and turn the ball over or take and miss ridiculous shots. Pass the damn ball. It may come back to you with a better look.
4. Good to see Deuce back at 100%
5. IMO OG is the best player on the Knicks right now. We don’t want him creating off the dribble much at this stage, but between the 3 point shooting, physicality around the rim, cuts and leak outs he’s going to give us plenty of efficient scoring most nights plus the high level defense. He’s rebounding better too.
6. I know everyone has given up on Mikal, but I haven’t. I think there are some lineup combinations that simply work better with Deuce than with Mikal or Hart. So you have to make a choice between them. Mikal gives us more scoring potential, but with OG playing at this level on offense plus Brunson/KAT, Mikal is very underutilized as a scorer. Hart fits better because he rebounds, make plays and gets the pace up better and we don’t need higher level scoring from him. He’s also playing good defense like Mikal. Deuce gives us better POA defense than Brunson, Hart or Mikal. It’s just a better fit against some lineups.
7. It’s a shame Mikal is losing value. If he gets traded, we are not going to get full value back. Then he’s going to be a much better and consistent player on another team where he’s a clear 2nd or 3rd option playing with a real PG and defending the correct position all the time.
8. Please no choking at MSG
There’s nothing whatsoever stopping Mikal from creating when he gets the ball, either getting to the rim, drawing contact and getting to the line, or drawing and spraying back out to the trifecta line. That’s modern NBA wing offense and he *never* does those things. Because he can’t do those things.
No one’s making a wing who gets to the line less than once a game their 2 or 3 option.
Prime Mikal from the BKN highlights with the decent/above average explosion and agility and creativity is gone. He’s way below peak, just as Fournier fell off the cliff at 29. It’s never coming back.
The smart versions of OG and KAT should really be unsolvable for this Hawks team. Hopefully they have it in them.
And Alan, those Old ‘97s albums really bring me back to college years! Hope he played some of that material (Rhett also has a pretty decent podcast btw… he’s no JK, but it’s good.)
He played stuff from all over his catalog, both solo and stuff from the band. Timebom, Rollerskate Skinny, Dance With Me, Question, etc.
TimebomB. Sigh.
I do sympathize a lot with elite athletes who haven’t even hit 30 years old and have already lost a lot of the skills that made them elite athletes.
Fournier was in denial out loud for months thinking it was “the system” or that he just “needed a fresh start” or that he was just generally getting a raw deal. But none of that really impacted the organization or the group — Thibs made the organization realize the contract was a sunk cost and that he wasn’t going to consider the sunk cost in his personnel decisions, and the organization didn’t push back and eventually they moved him out.
Unfortunately, Mikal psychologically working through his decline *has* impacted the organization and the group, including helping push a coach out, requiring the wasting of a roster spot on his personal security blanket, and otherwise passively aggressively complaining and bitching about his teammates, and of course making them have to deal with the contract extension they cluelessly gave him.
But even with that, I sympathize.
Shams: “ Just in: Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards has sustained a bone bruise and hyperextension in his left knee and is expected to miss multiple weeks, sources tell ESPN. Results showed Edwards avoided any ligament damage, but he will now miss time.”
Rough. DDV and Ant both out.
Yeah, that sucks.
Awful for the Wolves. Hope the Nugs can get it together in time because even if the Wolves still get through, they’re mincemeat vs SAS without Ant.
Knicks looked much more connected and focused last night, though JB wasn’t good. Feels like he’s nursing an injury or the flu or something – just out of sorts.
KAT and OG are the keys in this matchup, hope we get to see more great play from KAT this playoffs.
It’s possible Jalen is hurt. It’s also possible that, as I said before the series began, Daniels makes this team a REALLY tough matchup for him. And occasionally he gets stubborn when a team is containing him like the Hawks are at the moment.
Mikal is literally in the 0 percentile for playoff on/off (per Macri), at an unthinkable -46.1. Brunson is a -5. KAT is a +30.
I can’t argue Mikal on the Nets vs. Mikal on these Knicks anymore. If you don’t understand the difference by now you are not understanding how scoring hierarchy and matchups to a large extent dictate usage.
If you want to complain about his lack of drawing fouls, that’s fine, but he has a great fade away and has explained that the league allows greater physicality in the playoffs which reduces your chances of finishing and lowers your chances of getting to the FT line, which is why he likes to fade away. It also keeps him on the court without injury more.
If you want to say he’s lost half a step, I’m OK with that. So does almost everyone as they get close to 30. But that’s not the reason he’s not scoring as much.
If Mikal was being more aggressive, his shots would simply be coming out of KAT and OG (playing at this level) who are both more efficient. That would be dumb. When one of those guys has a bad matchup and he has a good one, then he has to be more aggressive.
It’s really a shame because they looked good enough on both sides to make some very serious noise. This might have been their year to get to the finals.
Eye test says this is spot on; at least last night. Best interpretation is that JB feels responsible and wants to help. Worst is that it’s an ego thing. Also — Wondering if there is any detail floating around about Jalen and Rick shouting at one other at one point for way longer than I’ve ever seen.
Thinking forward, KAT and OG connected multiple times on those easy bucket back cuts. They gave us a lot of confidence and demoralized the Hawks plenty. Notice that OG was undercut on the last one and crashed hard. Not convinced it was dirty defense, but the Hawks were def frustrated. Point is: I doubt that play is there for us next game for various reasons. We are gonna need another “easy bucket” plan or two or three.
that’s why we pay Brown the big bucks…
Brunson is our best player but needs to understand when the matchup advantage is running through KAT, he needs to follow that. This is about winning.
Mikal got to the line six times a game in his four playoff games with BKN.
He’s “explaining” a lot of things that aren’t really true. Kind of defines his time here, really. “Explaining” things that aren’t really true is also a way of psychologically dealing with your skills eroding.
I didn’t see it that way.
29 minutes and 10 shots for KAT.
34 minutes and 18 shots for Brunson (and that’s with him going to the locker room for a long stretch in the 3Q).
I think the players just said “fuck this” and adjusted themselves.
KAT was aggressive with his limited opportunities, many of which came late in the shot clock after Brunson wasted 15 seconds.
Then OG, Hart, and Deuce started to give the ball to KAT bc it was working and they didn’t want to go down as ball-watching bystanders.
There was even one point yesterday — and a poster mentioned this on the game thread (“read the room”) — where Brown was inexplicably busting KAT about something in a timeout after KAT had just made some incredible plays to bail out Brunson.
KAT deserves endless praise for his effort (he was good on defense, too), but I have a hard time giving Brown any laurels for adjusting.
Quickley out for series. Really unfortunate.
Mikal’s second season on the Nets happened, too, Strat. And it looked a lot like his two seasons here.
Man these rash of injuries truly show how the playoffs can be unpredictable and no amount of load management/treatment can prevent the freak in-game accidents. Last year Tatum, Lillard, couple of Cavs players…your fortunate can turn on a dime.
Crossing fingers Knicks can get out of this series with not only with a win but healthy bodies. You always want to see competition at the highest level with both teams’ best players available.
Hubs, KAT’s 10 assists are why he only had 10 shots.
An explanation of which I was skeptical, until he totally shut me up by being a gangbusters scorer in the playoffs for us.
Here I was worried this approach would lead to him having a .519 TS% on low usage in the playoffs, but nope, dude has been consistently killing it when the lights are brightest.
That just means he was getting his teammates involved, Swift.
Jalen had a 38.8% usage rate yesterday.
KAT was at 18.9. OG was 15.2.
If anyone has access to anything that counts time with the ball I’m sure it would show even more Jalen dominance.
Brown didn’t run the offense through KAT yesterday. KAT just kicked ass when he got the ball.
Sorry to digress, but London Marathon. WOW! Imagine shattering the previous world record, running it in under two hours in your debut (!), and coming in … second.
01:59:30 – Sawe
01:59:41 – Kejelcha
🤯
Cavs are shooting 35% and still winning by 4. Ugly game
Durant out for Game 4 with a bone bruise.
Raptors Cavs a candidate for worst playoff game
Raptors-Cavs, 2-2.
So if the Sixers can beat the Celtics later today all 4 Eastern Conference first round series will likely go at least 6 games
The Knicks don’t look quite so lame anymore….
Surely the national media will point that out instead of focusing on just the tired Knicks4Clicks narrative
Dudes who played what would be IQ’s minutes were a combined 1-17 from the field.
Cavs are extremely fortunate.
Mitchell was 6-24 so the Raptors were pretty lucky
Barnes, Barrett, and Murray-Boyles have been playing very good perimeter defense. So has Shead.
Eastern Conference is trash. I’m calling NY vs ORL finals.
Geez. Spurs really turned that game around. Out scored them by almost 40 in second half
Spurs are very good, but the Blazers are offensively challenged . Scoot putting up a Mikal line.
Second half points
Spurs- 73
Portland- 35
sixers fan for the moment…go get them joel…
time for vj max to show up and show out…
go sixers!!!
Will Mendoza coach another game? The Rockies ??
that celtics’ bench is lethal…
Don’t trust The Process.
Brown and Tatum are 2-11 from the field. Pritchard carry job going on.
David Stearns has put together a turkey of epic proportions. If the Mets were a movie they would be Gigli
It is so weird how the Celtics are destroying the Sixers on the boards with a bunch of midgets playing against Embiid
The Mets had a Gigli/Ishtar doubleheadder today.
Boy, Embiid really ruins everything, doesn’t he? That dude’s about as popular as Mikal Bridges.
Are you calling Queta, a 7 footer, a midget?
No I’m calling Queta a guy who played 17 minutes
Raps shot 32% and won a playoff game, glad I (and hopefully everybody else on earth) missed that one.
I know the Sixers are a deeply flawed team, but the way the Celts are just destroying them is troubling. Pritchard has become a very dangerous player who has to be guarded from anywhere over the halfcourt line, and even then he has a very tight dribble and is crafty in the paint. Plus he looks too much like PFC Louden Downy from A Few Good Men (“Joe Mazzulla gave me an order and I followed it!”
Even more troubling was listening to Reggie gush over about the C’s, and specificaly Pritchard, as they rained in 3 after 3.
It shouldn’t be a surprise. The Celtics feasted on shitty teams all year
I feel like this is a bit of revisionist history. In ’22, Thibs played Fournier for 80 games at 29.5 minutes per night. He was third on the team in minutes. The next year, Fournier could barely sniff the court, and he went to 12th in total minutes in only 27 games played. And you can argue that the Knicks acquired better players, but to go from a top of the rotation player to never playing is a huge disparity that made no sense. There were certainly games his last 2 seasons where he could have made a few appearances in an attempt to spark the offense, and he should have found more playing time than he was given.
But Thibs was a black/white person. You were either in the rotation or out. And as much as I like Thibs, I feel that was his huge Achilles heel.
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